Thirteen “Best Practices” for Improving R&D

Thirteen “Best Practices” for Improving R&D

• Corporate and business unit strategies are well defined and clearly communicated.
• Core technologies are defined and communicated to R&D.
• Investments are made in developing multinational R&D capabilities to tap ideas throughout the world.
• Funding for basic research comes from corporate sources to ensure a long-term focus; funding for development comes from business units to ensure accountability.
• Basic and applied researches are performed either at a central facility or at a small number of labs, each focused on a particular discipline of science or technology. Development work is usually performed at business unit sites.
• Formal, cross-functional teams are created for basic, applied, and developmental projects.
• Formal mechanisms exist for regular interaction among scientists, and between R&D and other functions.
• Analytical tools are used for selecting projects as well as for ongoing project evaluation.
• The transfer of technology to business units is the most important measure of R&D performance.
• Effective measures of career development are in place at all levels of R&D.
• Recruiting of new people is from diverse universities and from other companies when specific experience or skills are required that would take a long time to develop internally.
• Some basic research is performed internally, but there are also many university and third party relationships.
• Formal mechanisms are used for monitoring external technological developments.